Essay

UNIT 4

AUTONOMOUS LEARNING

Functions practiced: stating and justifying opinion, comparing and contrasting, clarifying.

Vocabulary Area: autonomous learner, to take the initiative in doing smth., guidance, acquisition of smth., technique, to manage smth., to fix objectives, to select methods, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, to be assumed, to foster smth., awareness, to encourage, motivation, to be un-/likely to do smth., to count on smth., intrinsic motivation, autonomy, self-esteem, know-how.

READING AND SPEAKING

Pre-reading

1. Match the words with their explanations below:

1. to motivate 2. objective 3. to acquire 4. autonomous 5. to foster | a) to help to grow or develop; b) having the right of management of one’s own affairs; c) to provide somebody with a reason for doing smth.; d) an aim, especially one that must be worked towards over a long period; e) to gain or come to possess, especially by one’s own work, skill, or action, often over a long period of time. |

2. Work in groups and discuss the following questions:

1. What makes some students successful?

2. What does “autonomous learning” mean?

3. Have you been taught how to learn autonomously?

4. What techniques do you use in learning foreign languages?

5. Why do you learn foreign languages?

Reading

Read the text and do the tasks that follow:

Helping Students to Learn Autonomy

Give someone a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach them to fish, and you feed them for life. An autonomous learner is someone who is able to learn on his own. In a sense, every learner is autonomous to some extent because every student in the classroom has to learn for him/herself. Teachers try to help students learn by providing opportunities for them to practice the new language in class as well as revise and learn at home, but they cannot learn for their students.

Successful students are those who take responsibility for their learning....